Thanks for the comments!

I will hit clay in another few feet. In some places clay is only 6 inches down.. where I dug-out my ATV loading area (no ramps) I hit clay pretty much instantly, other areas like this it seems to be much further down. My septic report from the original install shows after 3' it was clay down as far as they tested.

Lukus - The tractor I rented was a New Holland, 40hp they said. Due to the layout of my land a full load of dirt in low, low I could barely crawl up the ROAD to the garden area. Another area I got dirt from about 200' away I have another road back up to the garden area and stalled there a couple times. Babying it up works, but it's not efficient at all, cost wise going from 40hp to 45 was not much I`m hoping the benefit of a few extra ponies will help with the hill. Other than the ability to keep her moving on an incline the 40hp was fine. What's funny is the slowest part of moving the dirt was going up the hill loaded, scraping it from the `pond area` into the loader was piece-o-cake... drive down scrape turn drive out one fluid movement pretty much. Like you said once you get it down it's great work! If I had a dump-trailer to fill with dirt, then the 40hp would be more than plenty I reckon!

If the tractor didn't have the backhoe attachment I would imagine the hill climb being a bit easier on her too! I guess owning it I could remove the backhoe for faster movement, and a lot easier clearance!

After we level out the 'direct' backyard with the pond dirt, the remaining pond dirt will go for some small hills along the front of the property for road barrier, etc.

Lukus - Do you find that you can dig/clear out with the loader pretty good all the time as long as you have room to make the hole as big as the tractor to prevent high-center, and ability to drive out?